Jailed Ukrainian director finally given Russian indictment:
Ukrainian film director Oleh Sentsov, who was arrested last year by Russian authorities controlling Crimea and accused of plotting terrorist attacks, has received the final version of his indictment.
Sentsov's lawyer, Dmitry Dinze, told reporters on April 16 that his client had been charged with terrorism and illegal weapons possession.
Sentsov and three other Ukrainian citizens were arrested in May on suspicion of planning terrorist attacks in the Crimean cities of Simferopol, Yalta, and Sevastopol.
Sentsov is being held in Moscow's Lefortovo jail.
Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine in March after deploying troops and backing a referendum that was condemned as illegal by the United States, the European Union, and the UN General Assembly.
The European Film Academy has urged Russian President Vladimir Putin to explain Sentsov's arrest. The signatories included Agustin and Pedro Almodovar, Andrzej Wajda, Wim Wenders, Krzysztof Zanussi, and Daniel Olbrychski.
In June, prominent Russian film director Nikita Mikhalkov, who is known for his close ties with Putin, and the chairman of the Ukrainian Film Directors Union, Serhiy Trymbach, also asked Putin to release Sentsov. (Interfax, Rapsinews.ru)
Russian President Vladimir Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, has criticized the arrival of 300 U.S. paratroopers in Ukraine to train troops from the National Guard, saying their presence could destabilize the situation in the conflict-torn country.
U.S. paratroopers to train national guard forces:
About 300 U.S. paratroopers arrived in Ukraine this week to train troops of the Ukrainian National Guard, which is fighting Russian-backed separatists in the east of the country.
They are training 900 members of a Ukrainian reservist force that was called up in 2014 to bring volunteers and pro-government militia under government control.
The U.S. trainers are from the U.S. Army's 173rd Airborne Brigade, a unit based in Italy that serves as the U.S. European Command's conventional airborne strategic-response force for Europe.
"We will be conducting classes on war-fighting functions, as well as training to sustain and increase the professionalism and proficiency of military staffs," Major Jose Mendez, a brigade operations officer, said in a statement on April 16.
Troops from the same unit were deployed to Poland, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania in 2014 to train forces there and alleviate concerns raised by those countries over Russia's military intervention in Ukraine.
Fighting between the pro-Russian separatists and Ukrainian troops in the east has killed more than 6,000 people during the past year and continues despite a February cease-fire agreement. (w/ AFP, TASS)